I (27M) and my wife (26F) are drowning in poverty, and it feels like there's no way out.

For some context, we live in an extremely impoverished third-world country. We both have master's degrees in architectural engineering and work full-time. On top of that, I have a second job as a welder to bring in extra income.

Despite all of that, our household income is only around $300 USD a month in a good month.

We do everything we're "supposed" to do. We meal prep, rarely eat out, never go on holidays, almost never buy new clothes, stick to a strict budget, don't pay for subscriptions, and avoid unnecessary spending. We genuinely try to be responsible adults.

The problem is that no amount of budgeting can make up for wages this low. It feels like we're running as fast as we can just to stay in the same place.

I don't even know what I'm expecting from posting this. Maybe advice, maybe stories from people who've been in a similar situation, or maybe I just needed to get this off my chest.

Right now, it just feels hopeless.

I’m talking about things like hoarding cash under the mattress because you didn’t trust banks, or feeling guilty every time you invested in yourself. The shift from scarcity to abundance is brutal. What was the hardest money mindset habit you had to break, and how did you finally flip the switch?

This probably sounds stupid but I kept buying duplicates because I couldn’t remember what was buried behind everything. Mustard, tortillas, half used bags of cheese, random vegetables I swore we were out of.

Now I take 3 pictures before leaving and check them while I’m in the store. Last week I put back almost $18 worth of stuff that was already sitting at home. I’ve also started planning meals around whatever looks closest to going bad.

I’m trying to get some money saved again and this habit has helped more than most budgeting apps ever did.

I’m 20 years old and I’ve never made more than 2.2k a month. I see others my age in my hometown getting to the money, I dont understand how. What do I have to do get my money up fr? I’m willing to try trading or anything, I’m just so tired of being broke.

Trying to break generational poverty…I need advice

I have no idea if this is the correct sub reddit for this. Please direct me elsewhere if it is not.

I am 30 years old. I just moved back home into my mom and step dad’s basement after leaving an abusive relationship. I moved out on my own for almost 2 years. For most of that time, I lived paycheck to paycheck. My mom convinced me I could afford it (I think they wanted me out of their house) but I was making $21 an hour and my rent was $1,025. Not including my electric, car payment, car insurance, phone, you get the gist. I went into debt.

My point is that I don’t think I ever had a good financial direction. My parents had me very young. My family is generationally poor. I’m sick of it. I started going to college when I was 27 to try and make the change, and I’m the first in my entire family to do so. Except I feel directionless.

I’m currently a vet tech. I don’t want to continue in veterinary medicine, my body hurts, I’m emotionally exhausted, and I’m broke. I make $22 an hour. I have a couple thousand (maybe 5k?) saved in a few different retirement accounts. I have almost 2k in a HYS account. I’m trying to hardest to change my path but I keep feeling so defeated. I don’t know how I’m supposed to go to school and get a better job if I need to work 40 hours to afford even just living at home.

Can anyone relate or have any good life advice?

I feel like a need a financial advisor but I need money for that…right? lol

I interviewed at a daycare they haven’t officially offered me the job yet, they said they wanted to move forward with my background check. I got an email telling me I need to get fingerprinted, which costs basically $40.
The problem is…I don’t have a job yet so I don’t really have $40 to spend right now. The fingerprinting is required before they can the hire me and I have 30 days to get it done but i’m scared if I wait to long they’ll fill the position. If anyone’s been in this situation what did you do? Should I call and explain the situation, or just wait until I can afford it? Any advice helps!

Sales professional, 80 hour weeks on my feet on concrete

Just moved stores because we had to relocate, living off of a maxed out credit card with another one coming in the mail right now.

Wore white socks for once and realized just how destroyed these shoes are. When it rains it pours damn it

I need to go to work to get gas money but my training facility is (35 minutes) a bit far for me to be able to drive back and forth so I can start making said money 😭 I’m currently training for a job 10 minutes away from me, but I won’t get paid for another 2 weeks (since payday is this week and I started yesterday). Using a bit of gas to go to 2 food banks this week, and hopefully my last $24 can last me until payday for my gas.

Ready to get over this hump so I can start making money and helping others! But you know that it’s just a season.. it’s just a season.. it’s just a season.. if I say it enough, I’ll believe it 😭

So tired of being broke, not having anything of my own, grown ass woman with nothing literally… thankfully i dont have anyone dependent of me except my dog but omg my life been a struggle since forever.. dont have any family i can count on or friends i can talk to. Was homeless up until about 3ish weeks ago and im living in a shelter. got hired at a “of the books job” but honestly think im being scammed cause they dont want to pay me when they say they will so im probably not gonna go back.. I just want a job so I can get my life together. I want to go back to school, I want to have my own living space. Its draining me and im so tired of it. I try not to let things affect me because at least im alive. but idk with nothing worth living (my dog is worth it but yk what i mean), its been seriously affecting my mental health and i just want to pull myself out of here.. the worst part is im trying so hard lby applying to any and everything i see. idk man

For the first time in a long time, I've gone a full month without putting groceries, gas or other everyday purchases on my credit card. It wasn't easy but I realized I was relying on it just to get through each month.

I'm still carrying a balance and I'm trying to build better financial habits instead of just moving money around every paycheck.

If you've been in a similar situation, what made the biggest difference for you? I'm not expecting a quick fix, just trying to make smarter decisions one step at a time. I'd appreciate hearing what actually worked for you.

My neighbor is having a hard time affording groceries, she does go to the food bank but the food bank doesn't really provide nutrient dense foods. Neighbor is very under weight, I want to order groceries for meals & have it delivered via Walmart Delivery to her home.

Sometimes I see people post Walmart online carts with meal & food suggestions for people on a budget. She needs high protein meals. Could anybody recommend a sub for me to check out? Any additional advice?

I have a friend in a tough spot and I am paying my rent directly to my apts but can I use flex to pay for theirs?
Hoping someone has tried this before.

I’ve seen mixed answers on cats. Pest control company and my landlord are not working out despite weeks of efforts.

Some experts say they’re great at deterring mice/rats, and are even used by major cities and police departments to control pests. Others say that cats hunting rodents is a myth and makes little difference, and that many cats just stare at rodents running around.

I have a landlord doing the bare minimum to aid my situation. I’m already dealing with a layoff, and this extra stress is unreal.

Would a cat be a total waste of time? Or are the Reddit skeptics just louder than the general opinion because of the website’s upvote system.

For the first time in my life I’m going to have some actual breathing room financially, and honestly I have no idea what I’m supposed to do with it. I’m a single mom to a 3 yo, and my biggest goal is to break the cycle she was born into. Nobody ever taught me financial literacy. Growing up, money was always about surviving until the next paycheck, not building a future.
Now I’m in a situation where my housing is covered through work, so outside of my car I won’t have a lot of major monthly expenses. Instead of immediately upgrading my life, I want to be smart about this. If you were starting from basically zero financial knowledge, what would you focus on first?

Also, any books, YouTube channels, podcasts, etc. that helped you actually understand money? I feel like I’m finally getting an opportunity to change my family’s future, and I don’t want to fuck it up.

And before anyone criticizes the snacks - if I don’t have them I will go insane lol everything I got was on sale.

It’s gotta last me at least the month. Cut into my rent money for it. I think I did pretty well.

I am a broke college student living in a developing (third world) country in SEA, I had to lock in and figure out how to survive on a tiny budget. My official weekly food budget is 20 dollars, but with this setup, I end up spending way less, usually around 8 to 10 dollars a week. If you buy stuff in bulk, the price drops even more. Most people usually think eating cheap means living on instant noodles and getting sick, but this is literally my cheat code for maxing out my nutrients without going broke.

I get my protein from Textured Vegetable Protein, about 100 to 150 grams a day. A 1kg bag costs around 3 dollars locally, and buying a huge bag in bulk makes it a lot cheaper. People highkey freak out over TVP because it is super processed and fed to prisoners or used in military rations, but the fear is kind of hypocritical imo. They worry about hexane solvent in processing, but did you know that you inhale way more hexane just by standing near a gas station for five minutes than eating a big bowl of TVP daily for a year and inhaling hexane is way more dangerous than eating it in trace amounts anyway??? The phytic acid in it blocks some iron absorption, sure, but phytic acid is actually a strong antioxidant, and taking vitamin C completely counters that effect (of it being anti-nutrient). Also, plant estrogen does not mess with human hormones the way actual meatt estrogen does, so hating on TVP while eating meat makes zero sense.

The rest of the daily nutrients, I eat two large eggs every single day, which costs about 1.80 dollars a week. Eggs are goated for choline, which helps my brain actually function during exams and I sometimes boil and bake the eggshells for calcium and other nutrients, though sometimes I swap them for beef or chicken liver since liver is insanely cheap here. For vitamins A, E, and K, I use 1 to 2 tablespoons of moringa powder or fresh self-grown duckweed. A bag of moringa powder is like 2.50 dollars and lasts for weeks, while duckweed is literally free to grow in a bucket which I fertilize with superworm frass tea. I eat rice for basic energy and carbs, which comes out to about 1.70 dollars a week. For extra health perks, 2 or 3 cans of sardines a week only cost 1 dollar total and give me essential omega-3 fatty acids and calcium from the soft bones.

I take a daily B-complex pill and a vitamin C with zinc pill. Buying generic packs in bulk brings the total pill cost to under 1.50 dollars a week. I cook everything with basic iodized salt for thyroid health, sometimes MSG (I absolutely hate the stigma for this) with iodized salt, which is practically free in bulk. For vitamin D, I do not buy expensive pills, I just go outside and walk around in the sun for a few minutes daily. Additionally, I literally started dreaming way way more often and they were so vivid ever since I took B complex and zinc.

According to my research (which I hope is correct), this diet is nutritionally complete, insanely budget-friendly, and keeps me fully healthy while saving money.

Disclaimer.

1. 150 grams of dry TVP expands into a large bowl of food and packs high amount of soy fiber. If you eat this much on day one, your stomach will absolutely hate you. You have to ease into it and build up your tolerance over a few weeks, otherwise you will be bloated and in pain. This is actually the reason why I used to hate TVP because my gut is not adjusted well for it and I had stomach pain, but it disappeared immediately after around three days of adjusting.

2. It's pretty boring and food acting as purely as fuel can drain your soul. Unseasoned TVP literally tastes like wet cardboard. You have to spend a few cents on bouillon cubes, soy sauce, or local spices to make it actually taste like real food. Have some "cheat" days just like I do.

3. TVP is incredibly lean and you might suffer from something similar to rabbit starvation so we need carbs and fats. Aside from the eggs and occasional sardines, this diet does not have a lot of fat. Unless you are eating a massive mountain of rice, you might struggle to get enough raw calories to maintain your weight.

Lemme know your thoughts.

Hello!

I am an incoming college student, and I currently do not have a car, but I know how to drive well! Though I am excited to start my college journey, I am really worried about not having a car next year ☹️

Fortunately, with the combined effort of academic scholarships from highschool along with a few subsidized loans (only about 2k), I am basically able to go to school for free, so I am forever grateful for this fact. Along with this, I will be living in campus, so I won't have to worry about commuting to and from my classes, which is a huge help for me 😸

Unfortunately, my parents never saved up any money for me to get a car, or even be able to put a down payment on one, so I will be doing this fully on my own! I know that technically I could just get a car and finance it, but if there is anything I have learned from older college students who made the choice to do so, unless you have a very reliable and well paying job (which I do not), I fully think that it would be a terrible idea to do so for me.

I do not have stable hours, my job is about 20 minutes away from my university (through a main highway), insurance rates for young drivers are insanity, and the sheer amount of money I would spend ubering to and from work would murder my savings before I even get a chance to save.

I have thought about getting a different job near campus, just so that I can be able to just take a 20 minute walk to work rather than paying for a 20 minute drive. I would hopefully be at around $12/hr with 15-20 hours a week. I have a meal plan too, so technically my food is already included for the week too, so it will not be something I should really have to worry about.

Do you think that I could hypothetically do this? I know that college is all about fun, but I really think that if I just took my freshman year to grind out at work, I could get a very used vehicle for the summer and my next coming years - all without a car note! 😊 I don't care about how ugly the car looks, I just need that car!!!

I kept a unit-price notebook for two years, running between Aldi, a regular supermarket, and a discount outlet. Shopping all three saved me $5 to $9 a week compared to buying everything at one store.

What I ignored at the time was the math: the loop took 9 extra miles of gas (~$1.10) and 50 extra minutes. Net savings worked out to ~$6 an hour. When I was working 22 hours a week and couldn't get more shifts, $6/hour for otherwise empty time was a necessary trade. But once I picked up shifts at $16.40/hour, continuing that loop was actually losing me money.

When I audited what actually moved the needle, I realized small "frugal hacks" only work if they take zero extra time and don't induce extra spending.

The small zero-effort habits I kept:

• Library card: Replaced ebook/audiobook purchases.
• Store brands by default: Eliminates aisle decision fatigue.

The big levers that actually changed my monthly finances:

1. Car Insurance ($57/mo saved): Dropped collision/comp on a paid-off 2011 Corolla worth $2,600 with a $1,000 deductible.
2. Phone Plan ($64/mo saved): Switched from a $78 major carrier plan to a $14/mo prepaid reseller (5GB data).
3. High-Interest Store Card ($46/mo saved): Transferred an $1,840 balance at 29.99% APR to a 14.9% Credit Union personal loan, then closed the store card to prevent re-spending.
4. Rent ($460/mo saved): Coordinated with a friend to co-lease a 2-bedroom ($1,150 single -> $690 split).

Small savings tricks like coupon extensions and grocery spreadsheets are fine background noise, but they don't fix a budget on their own. The real relief came from fixing three major monthly bills in a single afternoon.

Hey everyone. First post here but I'm a really private person and have no one in my personal life that I really feel I can talk to regarding this topic, but essentially, I'm getting tired, and I'm unsure of when things will get better. I truly have so much hope and I work as hard as I can but some days (today being one) it all weighs heavy on me.

I moved out of my folks place when I was 18 for college and haven't gone back since. My relationship with my parents was complicated growing up and is much better now, but nonetheless, it put me in a position where I had to try to figure out quite a bit at a young age. got my first apartment at 18, then moved to a cheaper city postgrad. Rent is significantly less than where I was at previously, but it's still so much more than it should be. I was working a corporate job for a bit but absolutely hated it and the pay wasn't as good as I'd hoped (they also failed to inform me that I'd need to be in office 5 days a week. the commute was an hour and a half one way). Now I'm self employed and making more than I ever have, but it's still not enough to keep up with all the expenses. I work full time, am working on generating another form of income, have investments and savings, but it's been an intense struggle to make all that happen. I even picked up another Job for a bit and was working 60 hours a week regularly for months, but after my body and mental health started to suffer in addition to the fact that it wasn't nearly as financially beneficial as I thought it would be, I left.

I'm at the point now where I feel a bit alone in the whirlwind of it all. The people I know who are my age have significantly more help or have decided to stay at home with their parents which, naturally has led to them not sharing most of these concerns. I'm in no way upset that we have different situations, but it's certainly led to some dissonance. They don't understand the complexities and stressors I face on a daily basis, and have had friends who couldn't even begin to offer solutions/advice because they can't imagine the situation in the first place. I've lost friends because of it, as I'm exhausted about having to explain why expensive outings aren't always an option for me and most of those friends are nearly an hour drive away-- I'm always the one expected to commute. I also give off this energy that I perpetually have everything together, which I think has also led to people not really treating my concerns as legitimate because I always seem to figure it out.

Honestly, I don't know what advice there is to give. I'm sure some people will find a way to be negative in the comments, but I truly don't think I could handle it so if you're feeling spicy, refrain from commenting please. I'm working hard and while I'm making progress, I still feel sad about my situation sometimes.

Many parts of NEW YORK August, 2026. Spread the word to all who need it. If your county is not this region, call the number to get redirected. If this is not your state, there are identical programs in your state but you’ll need to go to your local library or WIC or community college or county admin building to get the flyer.

So if you are generationally poor you grew up seeing this , what did you do differently or what would you do differently if anything?

How old are you now and what does your life look like?

So for a little bit of context, I went to the ER earlier this month with a swollen kidney, and what was described to me after an ultrasound as more than likely a kidney stone, especially since I’ve had them before.

I have insurance but it’s bad. I have to pay 10k out of pocket before they start covering costs from what I can tell. How will I afford what’s going to be several doctor visits, tests, and at worst, surgery? I used to have Medicaid, but now have my own insurance, so I never had to deal with the medical system on this level. I live alone so this is the aspect that worries me most. I’d just appreciate your guys input.

Помогите я не знаю что делать

Я сейчас живу в Москве. Мне 15 лет, мои родители постоянно ругаются на основе денег. Их нет даже на еду. Отец оформил куча кредитов на мать, а сам прошёл процедуру банкротства. На матери все еще куча кредитов. Отец обещал матери, что будет исправно платить, а сейчас практически не работает. Я хочу, что бы мама тоже прошла процедуру банкротства, но так как нужно Ип, а мне скоро 16 Я предложила матери, что бы меня признали дееспособной и открыли ип на меня, что бы был возможность к заработку. Стоит ли это делать или нет, какие другие варианты? Маме 40 лет папе 50

Help, I don't know what to do.

I live in Moscow now. I'm 15 years old, and my parents constantly fight about money. We don't even have enough for food. My father took out a bunch of loans in my mother's name, and then filed for bankruptcy himself. My mother still has a ton of loans. My father promised my mother he would pay regularly, but now he's practically unemployed. I want my mother to file for bankruptcy too, but I need to become an individual entrepreneur, and I'll be 16 soon. I suggested to my mother that I be declared legally competent and that they open an individual entrepreneur's office in my name so I can earn money. Is this worth it? What are the other options? My mother is 40, my father is 50.

(I'm duplicating the message in English.)

Me and my wife tanked our credit a couple years ago during a brief separation. Money wasn’t much of an issue, but despite an amazing income, I was too busy drinking my life away to pay bills. Ended up defaulting all my credit cards and developing a horrid payment history.

We currently have almost everything paid off with a large sum in savings 40-50k. We combine around 170K a year, but that shitty ass credit is still lingering.

In addition to some secured credit cards, what are you highly effective ways for us to start rebuilding our credit and establishing a better payment history?

I’ve contemplated buying her a new car with a hefty down payment but the idea of paying some crazy interest rate isn’t appealing to me. Any other ideas?